Facebook-Owning Funds Slump Ahead of IPO

Tree Top Industries (TTII) this morning joined the club of publicly traded investment companies who are getting in on the Facebook pre-IPO action.

The firm disclosed it has taken a small stake in Facebook on the eve of the company’s initial public offering. “While Facebook stock may be out of reach for many individuals currently, the availability for a person to participate in Tree Top Industries is significantly more reasonable, and a larger leveraged position is attainable at the current stock price,” Tree Top says in a statement.

That’s the line of reasoning many investment firms have been using to attract retail investors looking to get in on the Facebook action before it starts publicly trading. The names commonly listed in the space are the Firsthand Technology Value Fund (SVVC) and GSV Capital (GSVC).

By buying shares of a fund like GSV, “you are, de facto, gaining exposure to share of Facebook,” said Steve Cordasco, principal of the Cordasco Financial Network.